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Forbidden, rogue, and "lost" Gods.

02-24-2017, 01:17 AM

What kind of corrupt divinities have you used in your games, or concepts you have for them? Talking about things like the cannibal god Han-Tha, or the dread deities mentioned to still be dwelling in fallen Zen-Mu. Honestly, the idea of Forbidden Gods seems like fantastic antagonist material, but it never got much spotlight.

Here's a concept I had for a rogue deity, although no stats since I'm garbage at the system.

Xuè-shù: God of Vampiric Trees
In the first age, when the Primordials still held sway over Creation, Xuè-shù was one of the more powerful gods of the East, ruling over a great forest of trees whose every leaf, branch, and root greedily drank the blood of any creature that came too close. When the other gods and their Chosen rebelled, Xuè-shù sided with her creators, raising up her entire bloodthirsty forest as an army, and acted as the commander of all Primordial-aligned forces in the South-East. Though her nightmarish forces and personal might were formidable, they were ultimately overwhelmed by the Exalted host. The Vampiric Forest burned, and Xuè-shù herself seemingly met her end and the hands of the Twilight sorcerer Thundering Silence. Unbeknownst to her assailants, one solitary sprig of Xuè-shù remained, and over the course of centuries, the rogue goddess reconstituted herself. Her sanctum is located in a thick forest near the north coast of the Dreaming Sea, and she travels the region to sow the slow-growing seeds of her favored form of life. Her forest grows, slowing choking out other plant life wherever it sprouts, and groves of Vampire Trees have begun to crop up within Volivats northern border.Description:
Xuè-shù resembles a thicket of darkwood branches twisted into a vaguely humanoid shape, twelve feet tall, with trailing roots where her legs would be. Two larges branches act as wings, and bare white leaves shot through with red veins. She has two faces, one serene and beautiful feminine face that is set into her torso, one with fangs of jagged wood upon her head.Powers:
Xuè-shù is capable of extruding black thorns from her body that weep a thick, red venom that hinders healing and causes blood to flow freely. Her monstrous face can spit barbed Vampire Tree seeds that take root and germinated rapidly in her opponents flesh, while her beautiful face can steal blood and essence through a kiss. She may animate plants at will, though she only favors carnivorous ones. Her most dangerous ability is to temporarily gain access to any Charms possessed by victims whose blood she consumes entirely, and she permanently keeps charms of wood elementals, or wood-aspected Dragon-Blooded charms.

Not quite a god and in another game system but I have a Servitor of Death, this is from Deadlands: Hell on Earth. Servitor are basically super powerful followers of one of the four horseman and are unkillable. Well there are special unique ways to kill them but very hard to discover.

My Servitor is a boy who plays in the streets and makes little diorama with sticks, dirt, toys, etc and creates dangerous combat situations, within a few days those situation come true. Last time the group was in town, there was a huge fight between competing gangs with pianos and anvils falling out of buildings. Next time they confront him he will use a claymore and since it says "this side toward enemy" as far as the kid is concerned, it is safe to hold in his hands and all the explosion will hit the party and because he believes it, that is how it works in his hands.

The way the posse has to kill him is figure out what one of his diorama is predicting and get his physical form at that location and be killed by his own power.

Not sure if applicable to Exalted but I could see a 2nd circle demon with similar powers

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One of my favorite creations from my current campaign is a forbidden god.

Perfect Loyalty is the god of Hateful Obligations and his purview included slavery, deceptive contracts, and loveless marriages. In the Primordial War he attempted to rat out the Celestial Incarae's betrayal to the Primordials, but was caught by the Maiden of Secrets before he could.

In the millennia since, he has not been imprisoned, but his worship has been outlawed. Since the fall of the Solars he has become bolder. He offers mortals the opportunity to make a contract: serve him in your sleep and Perfect Loyalty will teach you sorcery. But the contract is nigh unbreakable, extends to your entire family, and just because he'll teach you doesn't mean you'll have the capacity to learn. Almost all who have entered into the contract feel cheated.

Perfect Loyalty takes the form of a lap dog. Some of those in contract with him learn to speak to dogs.

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Akbia isn't quite a god. Akiba doesn't understand 'gods' of this new, fresh dream. But it song in the choir for great things once, in a world now dead.

Akiba sang, with kin, along the River Adrian, hymns that raised mountains. Akiba stands, a four armed two headed mass of coral, twenty feet tall. But for a time, it stood taller, drinking water till it burst, sending its younger versions out into the world, calcified two armed things.

Akiba's eyes see into people. It sees the creation of beloved things and the things themselves. The forge and the sword are the same. The act of love and the child produced are one. Akiba knows nothing else.

Akiba's song can, in this new dream, raise mountains and make shadows into stones. It can redirect it's place place, for it is a stone as well. Along the shore it sung once.

Akiba has come to the new dream only lately, trapped in the manse of a First Age traveller in the Dreaming Sea.

MeritsAlien Physiology:+8 from alien shape and formFour Limbed Menace: May attack up to 4 targets in one turn for 10ms each or 2 targets for 5ms each.

Sensory Charms:Eyes Of Souls Decent:(10m) May use Perception+Awareness to detect intimacies to others, particularly family, descendants, the act of creation and created objects.

Crushing Weight: (4m) Akiba may enhance his strenght by 2 in order to withstand gambits that would move him or knock him over or grapple him.

Porous Limbs: (3m) When savaging an opponent in grapple, add 5 to the raw damage if the opponent needs water/has blood as Akiba’s arms pull water out of their skin.

Songs of the Shore 10m, +5m. 1 wp

5m per round kept active. Effects all within hearing range.

Song of Stone Shadows: Gradually traps figures hiding in shadows by turning the darkness into hardened stone. Roll Perception+Occult to notice in time and escape. Every round afflicted, take a -1 to all momvement until out of the shadows.

Song of Adrian’s Shore: Increase size by ten percent. For each round active, add an additonal -1 hl. After doubling in size (20 rounds), Akiba collapses, creating a battle group of Akiba-spawn size 3. Akiba survives in the center of his former self. Can only be used in water.

Song of Pilgrimage Above-Below: Remembering the rapid movement of the River of All Torments, Akiba sings a hymn of homeward bonds. While the song is sung, Akiba moves one range band in any direction, regardless of obstacles or direction.

Song of The Monument King: Rejoicing in reply to the Mountain and Beast upon it, Akiba sings to make the earth rise with him. Allows for a feat of strength out to long range, adding 1 effective athletics or strength per turn the song is sung. Given time, Akiba can move mountains, piece by piece.

Song of Brilliance On The Depths: The warm song of Akbia strike harsh tones. For each round the song is sung, all characters not of the Akiba out to medium range suffers an enviromental hazard.
Roll Perception+Awareness, Diffculty 5 to avoid the rumbling rage of the song. Failure inflicts 3 bashing damage.

Song of Striking Stones: The Akiba casts stones about it with it’s songs, to build dams and bring down unshaped along the shore where the gods danced. Stones and water are it’s place of power. It makes a heavy thrown(Long) range attack for each turn it holds the song.

Charms:Songs of the Shore 10m, +5m. 1 wpSong of Adrian’s Shore: Increase size by ten percent. For every other round active, add an additonal -1 hl. After doubling in size (20 rounds), the akiba spawn transforms into a being like Akiba.

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I know I once had a concept for a forbidden Incarna-level god, but I'm brainlocking trying to remember

I dare anyone else to come up with one though

Nemesis, the Maiden of Grief

In the time of legends, there were not five maidens, but seven. Nemisis was the brightest of them, rising at nightfall and casting a strange grey light over the landscape when the sun slept. Her domain was pain and grief - the night was truly a time of terror for humans in those early days, for unlike the favored races of the primordials, they had no patron and no inner light to protect themselves.

When the Incarna created their champions, she too participated, shaping her own sidereals, but when the Exalted rose up against the creators of the world, her creations held back. "We are here to bring you grief," they said, and smiled sadly as Nemesis slew her sister Pluto. The Chosen of Grief fought beside the patron and beside the primordials, prolonging the war and bringing many to despair.

The other Exalted were victorious even still. "We shall not slay our sister, compounding grief upon grief," the maidens said, and through Venus' pleading Nemesis' life was spared. For her treachery, she was barred from Heaven and Earth. "Let her plague some other world," the Exalted decided.

Nemesis' light no longer shines in Creation's sky, but fear of the night persists deep in humans still. This is because they know, deep in their hearts, that Nemesis is only banished, not destroyed - and that one day they too shall feel her shining upon them. Until then, the living avoid shadowlands as best they can, knowing that the sun of the underworld shines with sorrow rather than life. The dead have no choice but to endure her pale grey light.

(Maybe when their patron fled to the underworld, the Chosen of Grief warped into liminals? Maybe Rakan Thulio is one of them? Maybe their arcane fate is so powerful even other sidereals forgot about them, and now they're all "ronin", not even knowing themselves what they are? Maybe they hide at the edges of Creation, hunted by and hiding from lunars?)

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Oh what about a Forbidden Incarna that represented Ghosts, and not following the proper cycle? Its kind of the opposite of the Idea I had about an Incarna of Reincarnation and Paradise. It could explain the growth of the Underworld After the Primordial War, perhaps it unsealed by the Neverborn making their purview possible.

It is a time for great deeds!

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I had the idea of having a surviving Othermoon named Hecate, who can occasionally be seen just above the horizon line at sunset, but only if the viewer is at the very edge of one of the elemental directions. No ideas for her beyond that, although she might make a good creator/patron for the Terrifying Argent Witches if you wanted to include them alongside "standard" Lunars as a separate Exalt type.

Literally any gender pronoun is fine, don't worry about it in my case.

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I had the idea of having a surviving Othermoon named Hecate, who can occasionally be seen just above the horizon line at sunset, but only if the viewer is at the very edge of one of the elemental directions. No ideas for her beyond that, although she might make a good creator/patron for the Terrifying Argent Witches if you wanted to include them alongside "standard" Lunars as a separate Exalt type.

I'm sort of tempted to do something along those lines with the Okami from Burn Legend actually. Making them and some of the more changed chosen of that shard into "alt exalts" of sorts.

Might or not involve a rogue Incarna that changed sides during the Primordial War and made a set of "evil clone maidens" along the way.